Carrier CEO: Indy Investment Will Help Automate Factory

As part of its deal with President-elect Donald Trump to retain some Indiana jobs, Carrier pledged to invest $16 million dollars in its Indianapolis factory.

But that investment will go toward automation, according to Carrier parent company CEO Greg Hayes.

In an interview with CNBC, Hayes said investing in machines and robots to replace some jobs people used to do will help make up some – though not all – of what Carrier would have saved by moving operations to Mexico, where labor is cheaper.

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Workers celebrated at Indianapolis’s Carrier factory Thursday when President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence announced a deal to save more than 1,000 of their jobs.

Dawnn Kinnard is a second-generation Carrier worker whose father still works there too, after 44 years. After listening to Trump speak, she says she was heartbroken when she first found out they’d lose their jobs.

“Today I’m elated, really just to get my dad to be able to retire when he wants to retire,” Kinnard says.

A federal grant will let Indianapolis hire an economic recovery counselor to help put out-of-use industrial sites – and laid-off employees – back to work.

The city qualified for the $355,000 grant comes from the U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic Development Agency after thousands of recent manufacturing layoffs – especially those at Navistar and, earlier this year, Carrier.

"We can't keep suffering these job losses and not try to mitigate it in the future,” says Indianapolis economic development administrator Brent Pierce.